-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com president obama defiant, promising to nominate someone to fill the supreme court vacancy and with a new criticism for the front runner in the race for president. good morning. welcome to "early start." good to see you. >> good to see you. who he might nominate to replace antonin scalia except to say it's someone with a legal mind. the white house strategy for getting a nominee on the high

court starting to take shape with a news conference in which the president pushed back against what he called republican obstructionism. our justice correspondent pamela brown has the very latest for us from washington. >> well, good morning, christine and miguel. this is the first time president obama took questions following justice scalia's death and he took a tough stance saying the constitution is clear, both he and the senate have the responsibility of filling the supreme court vacancy. he says he expects republicans to consider any nominee he puts forward no matter what, that they have a job to do until they're voted out and he made the point that whoever he chooses will be so indisputably qualified that the republicans will look bad if they refuse to even consider that person. >> somebody who has an outstanding legal mind, somebody who cares deeply about our democracy and rule of law. there's not going to be any

particular position on a particular issue that determines whether or not i nominate them, but i'm going to present somebody who indisputably is qualified for the seat, and any fair minded person, even somebody who disagreed with my politics would say would serve with honor and integrity on the court. >> he would not give any hints about who is on his short list. he said don't jump to any conclusions about whether they're moderates wchl no-no the white house has started to whittle down potential nominees. normally this is a process that takes about a month before the president comes out and announces who his nominee is and then the ball is in the senate's court. christina, miguel? >> thanks to you. most especially donald trump. the president slamming all the

gop candidates for their stances on climate change, ominous limbs, and on immigration, but calling out trump by name as the candidate least ared to be president, criticism that trump then wore as a badge of honor. >> i continue to believe mr. trum listen not be president, and the reason is because i have a lot of faith in the american people and i think they recognize that being president is a serious job. it's not hosting a talk show or a reality show. >> he has done such a lousy job as president. you look at our budgets, you look at our spending. we can't beat isis. obama care is terrible. and for him to say that is actually a great compliment if you want to know the truth. >> as those big cheers hint,

trump's support is only growing in south carolina. our athena jones has the latest from columbia, south carolina. >> reporter: good morning, christina and miguel. we're closing in on primary day here in south carolina, the first state in the south to hold a primary, and we have some new numbers out from cnn and orc showing the state of the race. take a look here. you can see donald trump holding a big lead over everybody else, 16 points ahead of ted cruz who's in second place at 22%. marco rubio follows at 14%. jeb bush at 10% in fourth place. the rest in single digits. this poll shows trump is the best candidate to hand tl economy, immigration, and isis, and as the candidate having the best chance to win in november and seen as the most likely to change the way things work in washington. and when it comes to the evangelical vote, you know

evangelicals make the majority of the primaries in south carolina, trump leads cruz by 20 points in evangelical numbers. those numbers are 22% for cruz to 23% for trump. how are the campaigns trying to win over? as for the bush campaign, they're clearly relying on the family nash. we already saw his brother campaigning in south carolina. tomorrow barbara bush will join her son once again on the campaign trail. we already saw her stumping for him in new hampshire. she'll join him again tomorrow and stay with him through the primary, clearly the bush team hoping the family name will give him a boost here in south carolina. christine, miguel? >> athena, thank you very much.

they speak out for the first time in this campaign. all six candidates will answer questions from the voters of south carolina in two live town halls moderated by our own anderson cooper. with a week to go, bernie sanders and hillary clinton are fighting hard for crucial votes. they're commanding a 18-point lead in south carolina. 58% to 38%. sanders stumped across appealing to african-american voters while clinton stumped in harlem propose 1g $25 billion for program fighting racial inequality implying sander was a late-comer to racial issues. >> when we talk about what's going on in this country and the fact that virtually the entire nation suffered terribly as a result of the greed and

recklessness and the behavior on wall street, the african-american economy has suffered more and has recovered in much less a significant way. >> we have to begin by facing up to the reality of systemic racism because these are not only problems of economic inequality, these are problems of racial inequality. and we've got to say that loudly and clearly. >> today clinton will be joined in chicago by the mother of sandra bland. she is the african-american woman found hanged in her secel after a routine traffic stop in houston. that bombshell from an upcoming documentary as well as

interviews with military and intelligence officials. the plan called nitro zeus would have disabled their air systems and power grid that would have given president obama options to avoid all-out war but it was put on the back burner after a deal between iran and six other nations was reached last summer. commercial airlines getting a green light. they'll allow daily flights to and from the island nation for first time in more than 50 years. it calls for as many as 110 daily flights to ten destinations in cuba with about 20 of them to havana. u.s. airlines will now be invited to apply for operating the flights. time for an early start on your money this morning. future, stock futures pointing just lower right now following a nice rally yesterday. oil price edging lower. stockmarkets in europe are

mixed. america's bull market in stocks may end soon but it's not time to panic just yet. there's a 50% chance u.s. stocks will dive into the bear market this year. most believe the fall will be short-lived. here's what that bull market will look like. it's the third all-time. since the recession lows in march of 2009, the s&p is up an amazing 180%. this year the stocks have come close to breaking a streak and entering the bear market but experts in this survey think the s&p 500 will end the year with a 2.5% gain. that's a jump of 11% from its current level. you know, it's been such a painful start to the year, miguel, that when you show a chart that says 180% since 2009 -- >> when you say panic, i'm going to start panicking. >> panicking is never good. >> i'll panic later. violence escalating just

days before a proposed cease-fire. we're live with new developments coming up next.

today vital humanitarian aid is set to reach starving civilians trapped behind front lines in civil war. at least that's the plan. as of yesterday the u.n. was still negotiating from the assad

regime. air strikes on schools and hospitals and territories that the u.s. is blaming on russia. for the latest we turn to international correspondent matthew chance who's live in moscow. do we have any better sense of the bombings on the doctors without borders as to what happened? >> certainly not in terms of what information we're getting from the russians. i mean the russians have deployed their strategy of denial time and again whenever they're constructed with it. they've cat gore it lick said that's not the case. they don't target the case and they say they terrible check their targeting, their targets before they carry out their strikes. they've used exactly that same strategy when it comes to these latestgations about the attacks on the hospital on the other hospital as well which was in

the turkish border where numerous people were reportedly killed. this was not them according to the kremlin. the kremlin spokesman yesterday issuing a statement. the defense ministry of russia came out as well saying the air force would not've carry out raids anywhere near those facilities at the time they were struck.

apple declined. where zika has been transmitted to import blood rather than use local donation. experts say it's likely the zika virus could be transmitted. donate blood for now. michigan governor rick snyder blaming the federal. snyder tells reporters he's answering tough questions. he issued a statement saying state and local officials, they failed to work with the epa in

an apparent and transparent manner to address the risk to the public health. lawmakers on a bathroom break. it requires them to use bathrooms based on their chrome super domes and anatomy at birth. it's designed to protect privacy. critics say it affects transgender students. if signed south dakota would be the first state with such a law. 17 minutes past the hour. after that arctic blast, warrawarranmth on the way. it's really going to warm up. it's definitely going to be very mild compared to last weekend. we have light showers pushing around the carolinas. some snow showers out of lake erie.

there's going to be a quick moving disturbance across the region. it's going to cool off from 29 to 26. new york's 32 drops off to right in line with what is average. this saturday, far from average. how about this. high pressure pitches it camp out. 20 above average. around the northeast. by saturday into sunday. so here's what it looks like. phil y how about closing in on 60. d.c. could exist on it. new york, 60. a flip-flop of what happened, of course, because last night in central park, look at this saturday's high going 15 degrees way above average for 42 this time of year. >> that is quite a flip. thanks for that. congratulations to a german short-haired pointer named c.j., he is america's new top dog. competition was ruf but c.j. prevailed. more than 2,700 dogs around the

country took part in this annual event around new york city including seven new breeds. c.j. is a third dog of the breed to take the top prize. >> that is a gorgeous dog. >> sure is. >> i want it. overnight china moving missiles into a disputed island in the south china sea. we're breaking down what all of that could mean next.

breaking overnight, heightened tensions in the south china sea. china has deployed surface-to-air missiles on an island chain in the waters. ivan watson is live for us in hong kong. ivan, not 12 hours ago they were urging restraint in this very neighborhood and now they report that this is an advanced missile deployment there. >> that's right. and some people are interpreting this as a chinese provocation. let's get to the map here. u.s. and taiwanese defense

ministers say they put these missiles on this woody island here in the south china see. it's in an area not only claimed be i china but also by vietnam and taiwan. why does this matter? china has had a presence here for more than 50 years. it has an air strip here. why it matters here, take a look at the china sea here. this is a body of worder that an estimated 30% of the world's shipping passes through. it's also an area that china claims largely for itself all the way down to here. now, president obama at his meeting with southeast asian leaders, he said that all countries big and small must follow international law. he insisted that he would help basically small countries defend their stakes in the south china sea and it would do so by kojtsing to send u.s. warplanes and navy ships into this area to

challenge the china sea in the so-called freedom navigation operations. the spratly islands, they're so much closer to the philippines which claims them than china way up here. now, if we zoom in, we can see why this is a uniquely 21st century dispute. this is one of the reefs there in 2005 known as fiery cross. now look what happened ten years after china started building on it. they built an entire island in the sea complete with air strips. so one of the concerns here is that china could militaryize like this. they're saying, no, they say it's for self-defense, it's its natural right and it's mostly done for emergency work and to help with meteorology work. >> we've heard that so many

times. they said they should focus more on the lighthouses and less on the military installations. all right, ivan. thank you so much for that. the final stop on pope francis's trip to mexico may be the most dramatic. the pope travels to the border town of juarez. he'll celebrate mass today just a stone's throw away from the u.s. border. cnn's polo sandoval is there. >> reporter: hey, there, miguel and christine. it's a place that was once considered one of the most dangerous places in the world at the bloody turf war. he'll go directly to a state prison that reflect as what he sees on the streets. he'll play he'll pray with about 800

inmates. what will be most symbolic is when he'll head to celebrate to mass only 60 yards from the u.s./mexico border. most agree the most symbolic moment will come as he prays over migrants that overlooks the u.s. border. that's deeply symbolic itself before the pope gets back on the plane to head back. they're hoping he leaves behind a message of peace, a message of hope in flas has already seen plenty of violence for so many innocent lives. miguel and christine, back to you. >> thank you, polo. president obama promising to nominate someone to fill the supreme court vacancy as he takes on the republican leading in the race for president. we'll have that coming up just yet.

president obama pushing back against republicans, promising to nominate someone to fill the supreme court vacancy. a battle looming as the president weighs in on the 2016 race, lashing out at the republican front-runner. remarkable comments from the sitting president of the united states weighing in on this election. >> it's amazing. >> welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> and i'm miguel marquez. president obama keeping mum on

who he might nominate to replace antonin scalia except to say it's someone with an outstanding mind indisputably qualified, a white house strategy to getting someone on the high court starting to take shape in a news conference in which the president push backed on what he calls republican obstructionism. pamela has the latest questions. >> good morning, christine and miguel. the pro took a tough stance. he said they have the responsibility of fulfilling the supreme court vai can sichlt he said no matter what i what they have a job to do and he made the point that whoever he chooses will be so indisputably qualified that republicans will look bad if they refuse to even consider that person. >> we're going to find somebody

who's an outstanding legal mind, somebody who cares deeply about dm democracy and our rule of law. i'm going to present somebody who indisputably is qualified for the seat, and any fa fair-minded person would serve with honor and integrity on the court. >> he would not give any himes on who was o on his short list. he said don't jump to any conclusions on whether they're moderates we know, that the white house has already started whittling down potential nominees. normally this is a process that takes about a month before the president comes out and

announces who his nominee is and then the ball is in the senate court. christine and miguel? >> thank you for that. president obama says donald trump is not qualified to be president and the american people are too sensible to elect him. calling out trump by name as the candidate least ready for his j job, criticism that trump then wore as a badge of honor. >> i continue to believe that mr. trump will not be president, and the reason is because i have a lot of faith in the american people, and i think they recognize that being president is a serious job. it's not hosting a talk show or a reality show. >> he has done such a lousy job as president. you look at our budgets.

you look at our spending. we can't beat isis. obamacare is terrible. and for him to say that, that's actually a great compliment, if you want to know the truth. >> there were big cheers when he said that. trump support is only growing in south carolina, holding huge leads in the cnn poll. our athena jones has the latest from columbia, south carolina. >> reporter: good morning, christine and miguel. we're closing in. we have new numbers out from cnn and orc showing the latest. take a look here. you see donald trump holding a big lead over everybody else. 16 points ahead of ted cruz who's in second place at 22%. marco rubio followed at 14%, jeb bush at 10% in fourth place, the rest in single digits. now, this poll shows that trump is seen as the candidate best able to handle the economy, immigration, and isis, and as

the candidate seen as having the best chance to win in november and seen as the most likely to change the way things work in washington. and when it comes to the evangelical vote, you know evangelicals make up a majority of the primary electorioorate h in south carolina. trump leads cruz by 20 points in evangelical numbers. those numbers are 43% for trump. half have made up their minds. the rest are making up their minds. as for the bush campaign, they're clearly relying a bit on his family name. we already saw his brother george w. bush taking the stage and campaigning in south carolina. tomorrow barbara bush will join him on the campaign trail. we already saw her stumping in

new hampshire. clearly they're hoping the family name will give them a boost in south carolina. christina? >> thank you. republican candidates speak out on cnn. it's a two-night event, tonight and thursday at 8:00 p.m. for the very first time all six candidates will answer questions from the voters of south carolina in two live town halls. they will be moderated by anderson. >> that is going to be illuminating. >> absolutely. >> interesting to watch. with a week and a half to go until the south carolina primary, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are fighting hard for crucial minority votes. the latest cnn/orc poll shows clinton leading a commanding 18-point lead in this state, 68% to 38%. sanders spending precious days trying to cut in appealing to african-american voters while clinton spoke in harlem proposed $125 billion for new programs.

implieg sanders was a late-comer to those issues. >> when we talk about what's going on in this country and the fact that virtually the entire nation suffered terribly as a result of the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior of wall street which drove this economy into a terrible recession, the african-american economy suffered more and has recovered in a much less significant way. >> we have to begin by facing up to the reality of systemic racism because these are not only problems of economic inequality. these are problems of racial inequality, and we've got to say that loudly and clearly. >> now, today clinton will be joined in chicago by the mother of sandra bland, the african-american woman found

hanged in her cell after a routine traffic stop in houston. lead to a military conflict. that bombshell from an upcoming documentary as well as a plan. the plan nitro zus would have disabled iran's communications systems and parts of its power grid. it was to give president obama options to avoid all out war. it was put on a burner after an agreement was reached last sum jeer commercial flights between the u.s. and cuba getting green light to take off as it were, the two countries signing a dale that will allow daily flights to and from the island nation for the first time in more than 50 years. it calls for as many as 110 flights with about 20 of them to havana. u.s. airlines will now be

allowed to apply for flights. it's amazing. >> you may hear of ted cruz tell of his flat tax plan. he says it's so simple americans could file their taxes on a single post card. a dive in numbers shows the deficit would explode. at least 12 trillionion over the following decade. the only way that won't happen is if hunl, huge spending cuts are imposed. now this tax analyst group does agree that cruz's tax plan is simpler than current law and simpler than that of his rival candidates. there are elements that would benefit the economy but without realistic spending cuts the deficit would increase and could disproportionate disproportionately be good for

wealthy taxpayers. a w meermts away from cease-fire. that's up next.

today vital humanitarian aid is set to reach starving civilians trapped behind the front lines in syrian civil war. at least that's the plan. as of yesterday the u.s. was still negotiating permission from the assad regime and a day before a day of hostilities is

set to go into effect. the u.s. is blaming on russia. for the latest we turn to cnn international correspondent matthew chance live in moscow. still a dangerous and depressing situation inside syria. >> reporter: yes, absolutely. it seems as if the deadline approaches after the cessation with secretary of state john kerry, the russians are only stepping up their air campaign inside syria, attacking opponents of ba sad. the russian defensemen industry saying in the past week they've carried out 444 bombing sorters of various areas against opposite gruts inside syria, more than 1,600 air strikes carried out, doing everything

they can to give assad that. if it takes hold. in terms of the hospitals where so many people lost their lives over the past few days, the russian position on this has been categorical denial. all the time, they say we don't target civilians, we don't kill civilians. they're employing the same strategies when it comes to these as well. they say their warplanes were nowhere near the hospitals when they struck. >> thank you for that this morning. >> apple is under court order. a federal judge ruling on a request by prosecutors to have apple assist in finding the pass code and access information from

f farook's cell phone. the food & drug administration assisting in guidelines. they'll import blood rather than use local donation. experts say it's like lie the zika virus could be transmitted through tainted blue. the fda has recommended that certain at-risk donors not donate blood for now. michigan governor rick snyder blaming the federal government for multiple failures in responding to lead contamination in drinking water. he tells reporters he hopes officials are asking tough questions. he issued a statement saying state and local officials failed to work with the agency in what they called a transparent and proactive manner to address the risks to public health.

south dakota lawmakers passing a controversial bathroom bill that has drawn outrage from the lgbt community. it requires public school students to use public restrooms to use bathrooms based on chrome zones and anatomy at birth. if the governor signs it as expected south dakota would be the first state with such a law. after that arctic blast, a return to warmer. >> you need to thaw your mouth. >> is warm weather on the way. let's check on the wle with pedram javaheri. >> boston goes from 33 to 44 by tomorrow afternoon. even new york city drop off about five degrees from today's high of 42 down to tomorrow's

37. long term we look toward the weekend. could be around 60 in philly. could be 60s comfortably in washington where new york city makes it up to 63. even boston manages to get up to 50 above after nine below last sunday morning. long-range forecast this weekend into early to mid next week, really the entire country has the chance of being above average temperatures. seeing those conditions looks likely but watching showers pushing off. light snow showers around portions of lake erie and ontario this weekend. but this weekend how about 20 above average, ten above average. the southerly flow keeps it going. temperatures soar into the lower 50s and a little cooling by later next week. still, again, looking to be above average. >> thank you. we like above average. >> everyone's above average. >> here's an above average. congratulations to a german short-haired pointer named c.j.

he's america's new top dog. the competition was ruf. coveted best in show at the westminster dog show. more than 27 countries took part in new york city. c.j. is the 3-year-old male, the third dog of his breed to take the top prize. >> congratulations. >> what a cutie. >> do you think he knows he won? >> he's like get me home, get me a kibble. >> i know. the slight rebound in oil prices still hitting your wallet but you'll save hundreds. i'm going to explain when we get an early start on your money next.

breaking overnight, heightenedtensions in the south china sea.

they've sent missiles to the international waters. ivan watson is following developments from hong kong. ivan, it seems like another step from the chinese to anger the americans and basically say that they won't be stopped in asserting control over these islands. >> that right. well, the chinese say this is purely an act of self-defense. what you've got here is in the south china sea there's an arc pellgo of islands and reefs that are claimed by vietnam, china, and taiwan, and one island in particular, woody island, that's where a satellite imaging company called isi came up with a series of photos it published. we're going to show you. it says these are photos along one beach on the island that china has controlled for more than half a century that show the recent deployment of what appear to be surface-to-air missiles whiechl is that important right now?

that's because the south china sea is a big tangled mess of different countries in the region that are competing for control and claims to different parts of the south china sea. vietnam, malaysia, the philippines. what's very strange here is china claims water all the way down to here, to the shores of the philippines. and where this is really at stake right now is in an area called the spratly islands. just to give you a sense of what china is doing there, this was a reef in 2005 known as fiery cross. now look what's happened after ten years of chinese land reclamation. they've built an entire manmade island out of the ocean, put in an air strip as well. and one of the concerns that president obama raised with the southeastern asian summit leaders was to stop what he claims were disputed territories, particularly in these manmade islands. what the u.s. has been doing is sending warplanes, u.s. navy

ships into these areas to challenge china's claim that it controls these areas. so that's ratcheting tensions up right now. china again insisting that it is building these islands to help with fishing and to help with emergency rescue as well. miguel? >> all right. ivan watson, thank you very much. that controversy is not going away any time soon. thanks. poep francis's final stop may be the most dramatic. he'll pray for migrants who died trying to cross into the united states and he'll celebrate mass today. just a stone's throw from the u.s. border. cnn's polo sandoval is there with them. >> hey, there, christine and miguel. there's no shortage of security. it's place that was wasn't considered one of the most dangerous places in the world of a bloody turf war. now he gets ready to welcome a pope as soon as francis comes

down around 12:00 noon eastern time. he'll pray with about 800 inmates before he eventually heads to meet with several local leaders and ultimately the moment we expect to be extremely symbolic is when pope francis will head to celebrate mass only about 60 yards from the u.s. mexico border. many here seem to agree the most symbolic moment will come as he will pray at a temporary area for migrants. obviously that deeply symbolic before pope francis heads back on the plane and back to vatican. people hope he leaves behind this message of peace, this message of hope in place that already has seen plenty of violence for so many innocent lives. miguel, christine, back to you. >> thanks. let's take a look at money.

stocks staged a two-day rally. oil is up. it's close 230 buck as barrel. for the first time in three weeks gas prices are rising. the national average ticked up to $1.71. still it's 19 cents less than last month and more than a dollar less than last summer. don't worry. it should still stay below $2 for the rest of this year. the man with the second biggest salary on the nfl is not even the field. it's the nfl commissioner roger goodell. check out his paycheck. $34.1 million during the 2014/2015 season. that's $1 million down from the previous year. the only person in the league who earned more is quarterback matt ryan thanks to a huge signing bonus.

we can't compare his pay to other commissioners because they don't disclose what they make. the nfl has to because they operate as, get this, a not-for-profit organization, giving the money to teams themselves rather than keeping it. $140 million, his pay. >> it's not enough. that poor man. how can he survive? >> he's got go on a budget. "early start" continues right now. president obama defiant proms to fill the vai can ski and he has new criticism for the republican front-runner in the race for president. good morning. i'm christine romans. >> and i'm miguel marquez on february 17th. it's 5:00 a.m. on the east coast. president obama keeping mum about who he might replace for

antonin scalia other than to say it will be indisputably. cnn justice correspondent pamela brown has the latest from washington, d.c. well, good morning, christine and miguel. this was the first time president obama took questions following justice scalia's death and he took a tough stance saying that the constitution is clear. both he and the senate have responsibilities in filling a supreme court vacancy. he said he expects republicans to consider any nominee he puts forward no matter what, that they have a job to do until they're voted out, and he made the point that whoever he chooses will be so indisputably qualified that republicans will essentially look bad if they refuse to even consider that person. >> we're goepg to find somebody who's an outstanding legal mind, somebody who cares